1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to clamp devices to hold and space building elements. More particularly, it concerns clamp devices designed to hold building trusses in place after the trusses have been deposited upon a building foundation by a crane and while they are being nailed to stabilize their position for further work thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the construction of residental homes and other buildings that use wooden trusses as components of the roofing, it is conventional practice to have such trusses preformed at a separate location and then trucked to the building site. Then, after the building foundation, including walls and perimeter beam, has been built, a crane is usually employed to lift the trusses, one at a time, from their ground storage location up onto the perimeter beam. Typical trade practice then involves having the crane remain in a support position while a carpenter nails the truss to a horizontal spacer timber in order to stabilize it so the crane can move away to pick up another truss for repetition of the positioning and stabilizing operation.
In such construction operations, cranes are conventionally charged by the hour, so that the greater the number of trusses that can be installed per hour, the lower the labor and equipment costs will be to the contractor. The present invention relates to devices that can effectively reduce the time required for a crane and its operator to set wooden trusses onto a building foundation.
The use of spacing clamps and tools in building construction is not new, e.g., see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,567,586; 2,686,959; 3,201,874; 4,322,064 and 4,420,921. The present invention extends the art of use of spacing clamps by providing new forms of clamp devices and new methods of clamp usage in installation of trusses in the construction of buildings.